I’ve got the edit back from my editor and I am madly reviewing the manuscript for the last book in the series, Olympus Dawn.

I wrote up a bonus scene for an interview I did with Simon Waller on his Future with Friends Podcast. He asked me to write a scenario for the future, so I did this one.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you want to get first notification of the launch of the book, along with the exclusive special editions for the series, join us here with Bookish.

Zoë

2055

Lincoln Ellison pulled his silver plated comb through the helmet of his hair, smoothing every strand until it gleamed. He smiled and checked his teeth: white as sheets, chiselled symmetrical, lustrous. He breathed into his palm—minty fresh. Good. Excellent. All the anti-ageing protocols, the optimisation regimens, the endless tweaks—working.

“Mr Ellison, they’re ready for you now.” His assistant, the Dopplebot Caesar, bowed and held the door for him.

Lincoln savoured the deference. Critics had mocked him for reprogramming an AI based on Julius Caesar into servitude, but really, humility would have done the old general good. Hubris had left Caesar bleeding on a Senate floor.

But today was Lincoln’s triumph, his metaphorical lap of glory around Rome. His empire, Spaceward Bound, was unveiling planetary-scale air purification. No more sulphur dust bowls. No more acid rain. Soon: clean skies, clean lungs.

Lincoln’s smile broadened. Water salinity - they’d already solved it. Potable water scarcity was about to be a thing of the past. 

With their squeeze on the helium-3 mining operations on the Moon, Spaceward Bound had the resources to offer an abundance of air, water, and energy. They could reverse the worst effects of industrial climate change. Better yet, they could make the planet better—a better climate, a healthier environment, a more peaceful world.

He could almost weep.

Standing in the wings of the giant stage, Spaceward Bound logo floating around a holographic Earth, Moon and Mars, he took a few steadying breaths as the host read out his introduction and his long list of accolades.

There were of course a few hurdles to overcome. Lincoln’s mind batted each thought away as it arose. Competitive water purification tech from Aryanna Industries—his spies claimed it was ten times faster than their own—but his lawyers had that tied up in a bogus patent claim, thank goodness. Then the spectre of the Lunar Commission finding out about their helium-3 skimming. But the biggest risk right now was Dr Victoria Tang, still unwilling to sign over her air scrubber invention. Lincoln preferred persuasion over coercion, but things were on a timeline now.

“—Please welcome to the stage, Lincoln Ellison!”

A roar erupted. Lincoln strode to the centre of the platform, palms pressed together in saintly gratitude.

“Friends, we are on the cusp of humanity’s greatest leap forward.” His voice boomed and tingles rushed from his crown to toes. “We brought you abundant energy with helium-3. We delivered clean water with Prima Aqua. And now, clean air with the ALVEUS biogenic cartridge. 

Dr Victoria Tang is now working with Spaceward Bound to manufacture and produce the scrubber so we can bring clean air, first for the worst affected areas like Po Secco, and then for the entire planet.”

Thunderous applause.

Somewhere in the crowd a voice called out: “At what price? We can’t afford your water let alone your air!”

Lincoln kept his smile unassailable. The Dopplebot security would soon silence the heckler.

“But we have bigger aspirations.” Pause for dramatic effect. “While we heal Earth, we go to Mars.”

Lights flashed. Cheers surged. 

Lincoln wondered if the lights would cast a sheen on his forehead—he felt the prickle of sweat at his collar as he stood in the tractor beam of the floodlights.

“In six months we will be launching the first human mission to Mars. With Dr Tang’s ALVEUS cartridge, the Chinese Dopplebot base is ready to receive the first pioneers. At long last we are ready to amend the Mars Accord and send humans to the Red Planet, humanity’s next frontier.

Spaceward Bound is taking applications for the first settlers. Bounders will have first right of application: as company employees, and as the first Martians, you’ll each have your own habitat dome—all mod cons—built and powered by Spaceward Bound. As the first pioneers, you will be able to claim mineral rights. Spaceward Bound will supply you with all the manufacturing and mining bots you need to build your own enterprise. In the meantime we will be activating the air scrubbers to get the terraforming done. Breathable air, planetwide, within a generation.”

“You’ll make us slaves on a planet with no laws!” someone shouted. A scuffle rippled through the crowd. 

His smile didn’t waver:  “Mars is our next frontier.”

He spread his arms wide to embrace the cheering crowd. 

“I offer Wealth. Prosperity. Where a man—or woman,” he added hastily, “—with hard work and focus can build abundance. ”

Then somewhere closer, a voice that raked claws on his consciousness—the warning to Caesar and generals past: “Memento Mori, Ellison! Memento Mori!”

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Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to explore what's coming and what it means for leadership of the future.

Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run 6 marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.